A teacher accused of raping and sexually assaulting a 15-year-old pupil broke down in tears after he was cleared today.

Malcolm Nicholson, who taught the girl while he was a teacher at a school in Prescot, Merseyside, was found not guilty by a jury after just under three hours of deliberations.

After the 46-year-old was discharged from the dock at Liverpool Crown Court, he broke down in tears.

It had been alleged that he sexually assaulted and raped the girl in the early 1990s after taking her back to his then home.

Nicholson, who moved to Nunthorpe after losing his job when the allegations came to light early in 2014, vehemently denied all her allegations and said they were “fabrications.”

He said he had been blackmailed by the woman and her husband after she contacted him out of the blue via Twitter. In subsequent phone calls and text messages, she demanded £200,000 and he transferred £8,000 to her bank account as he felt threatened.

Nicholson, a father-of-two, said he had considered telling the police he was being blackmailed, but that would have meant the allegations becoming public knowledge which would “have been disastrous” and destroy his career.

The court heard that when she threatened to go to the police, he begged her not to do so as he feared he would lose his reputation and career. At the time he was based in The Hague working for the prestigious international education organisation IBO and had earlier worked in the Bahamas and Thailand, where he met his wife.

Nicholson, who has no previous convictions, admitted he had been naive and “foolish” to hand over the £8,000, which his accuser told the court she had burnt in her back garden as it made her feel empowered because it was money he had earned.